Financial reporter William D. Cohan likes alpha males in troubled waters, and he wades into especially brackish murk for his new investigative book.

The scandal started at a Spring Break party on March 13, 2006, for which the Blue Devils' varsity lacrosse team hired two strippers. One woman accused three players of raping her in the bathroom of the off-campus house shared by two team co-captains.

And so begins an infuriating and squalid tale, with no heroes, several villains and an overstocked roster of victims. Before the month was out, the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation processed the accuser's clothing and rape kit and found nothing. And yet the same day, Prosecutor Mike Nifong told a talk show the DNA evidence would be “bulletproof.”

For Duke itself, “The Price of Silence” was steep: $60 million to settle lawsuits brought by the three players.

Cohan, a Duke graduate and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, is sharp about following the money, as demonstrated in his best-sellers such as “House of Cards.” Duke lacrosse is a veritable feeder-system to Wall Street, an interesting tidbit in this sprawling book.